The Home Place
June 14, 1994
My Darling Grandson,
The news of your birth came to us at about 3 a.m. this very morning. Your daddy called from the hospital to tell us of your arrival and said that your mommy was doing fine. They had first called us when they left home for the hospital at about 7 p.m. Your grandfather and I were so excited we couldn’t sleep. We are so very glad that you are here safe and sound.
Your grandfather has gone to sleep. He has to get up to go to work in a little while. I am too excited to sleep, so I am writing you this letter. When I finish it, I will give it to your daddy. He can give it to you when your are 21 years old as a special birthday present. I am 65 now and will be 86 then, if I am still around.
When you come home from the hospital, you will be the eighth generation of the Boyd family to live on this land. Your great-great-great-great-great grandparents settled here in 1799. This land has been our life and our living ever since.
Thomas Jefferson Boyd was born here in 1800, as were his two sons, Joseph and Henry. You are named Joseph Henry Boyd Wines after them. Henry’s son, Little Jeff, and his son, Joe Bob, were born here as well. My brothers and I were born in the hospital, as were your daddy and you. But we were all born to this land just as much as if we took out first breaths here. Your heritage is here. It is a heritage which all those who now rest in the burying ground on the hill behind the barn worked so hard to give you.
Our family has another great heritage. It is the stories written by your forebears telling of their lives and how they helped to build this farm. Your grandfather and I have decided to have all these stories made into a book for you. You can keep it and learn about those who came before you. Maybe I will put this letter in it, too.
These stories are about your family, yes, but they are also about this farm we call The Home Place. This farm is special because it is our family home and the home of those who came before us. It is important for every person to know who they are and where they came from. There is nothing more valuable than to know that you are loved and that you can love in return. For generations the Boyds and now the Wineses have loved this farm, this special place.
Even those who go away still keep this love, this sense of place in their hearts. Your great Uncle Billy moved back home when he retired, and your Aunt Debbie still thinks of this as home even though she has lived in California for many years. Their roots are as firmly planted in the soil of this old farm as the roots of the trees your grandfather worked so hard to grow.
We are lucky to have our tradition here in this place. We used to have family over in Simpson County. Your grandfather and I went there not long ago. The farm that they once owned has disappeared. Part of it is now a strip mall and a modern subdivision. The rest is part of someone else’s farm. Some times we hear from cousins. They are scattered all over the country, and their home, their special place is gone, except in memory. They have lost something they will never recover or replace.
Our greatest dream is that you will want to keep the tradition, that you will stay on and maintain The Home Place as a working family farm. One thing is for sure; we are no longer “hicks from the sticks” just because we live on the farm. We have the latest computers and soon we’ll hook up to the Internet with links to the entire world. We have a satellite dish that lets us see more than 60 TV channels. It’s amazing to me to sit in our living room and watch a program that can be seen by millions of people around the world.
We also depend on the whole world for our lifestyle. The gasoline in our car comes from oil pumped from the ground in the Middle East, or Africa, or Latin America. The coffee we drink, the sugar we put in it, and the many fruits and vegetables we eat come to us as a part of a world economy. Our corn and soybeans are made into food and products that may end up anywhere in the world.
By the time you are 21, it will be the year 2015. You may be an engineer or a scientist or an author, yet you may be able to do your work right here rather than in an office in some city far away. Whether you stay here or go away, I hope you will always think of this farm as your home.
Farming has changed so much, I have no idea what it will be like by that time. But I am sure there will still be room for the well-run family farm.
One thing is for sure. Farming will still be an act of faith. We gamble our very survival on the forces of nature. We have faith that the rains will come when they are needed. We have faith that the seeds will sprout, the animals will multiply, and the laws of nature will continue to hold true. Each decade we risk drought, flood, and storm. We accept these risks as part of life.
We also have faith in our fellow men. Almost everything we own in our business sits here on the land and is pretty much unprotected. We must hold on to the belief that our animals, our crops, our equipment, and our buildings will not be harmed or stolen. We can’t guard them all the time. We must believe that people are basically good, and that they will respect what is ours as we respect what is theirs.
Above all we must have faith in our family and in the power of love. When you read the stories your ancestors wrote, you will see that their very lives depended on love and cooperation. They and their families and neighbors had to work together. They had a sense of community that bound them. They looked out for one another, not for personal gain, but for the good of each and all. That community is the ultimate act of faith for farmers, or for anyone, it seems to me.
This is the world in which you will grow up here on The Home Place. It is not a world that you will see on the evening news on TV. It is a world which fewer and fewer people are lucky enough to experience. You will learn that we are not always in control of our world. We are dependent upon the forces of weather that city people see only as something which might ruin their golf game or slow their drive to work. We are richer for being aware of the beauty of the summer rains or the benefit of a heavy winter snowfall. These are the very forces of life itself.
You will learn that we must conserve what we have. We must protect the land and the water. We can’t just cut down trees. We have to plant groves of new trees. We have to dispose of our waste products safely and carefully because to do otherwise threatens our whole way of life. You will owe this trust to your children just as your ancestors owed it to you. I can’t understand how anyone can claim to love our beautiful state without trying to preserve its environment.
Most of all, I hope you will learn about your past. We are all products of those who came before us. Read the stories of your family, and they will help you appreciate even more the value of this good land. It has been nourished by the blood and sweat and tears of good men and women. Treasure this heritage, little Joseph Henry, that you may pass it on to the generations that will come after you.
Most of all, your grandfather and I hope and pray that you will treasure each day and the beauty it brings you. Take time in your life to enjoy what you have.
Keep in your mind what your ancestor, Thomas Jefferson Boyd, wrote nearly two hundred years ago: “I truly believe that there is no greater place than where I live and no more beautiful sight than sunset on the Green River.”
Your loving grandmother,
Sarah Boyd Wines